Dripless saucer



June 5, 1962 J. A. ROEHRIG 3,037,660

DRIPLESS SAUCER Filed May 26, 1960 INVENTOR. John A. Roehrig hisATTORNEY.

United States Patent F 3,037,660 DRIPLESS SAUCER John A. Roehrig, 311Club Field Ridge Road, Pittsburgh, Pa. Filed May 26, 1960, Ser. No.31,936 1 Claim. ((31. 220-2383) This invention relates to a driplesssaucer and, more particularly to a saucer, or an insert therefor, forpreventing the dripping of liquid from the bottom of a cup supported onthe saucer as the result of spillage of liquid into the saucer.

An outstanding disadvantage of conventionally used cups and saucers isthat when cofiee or other liquid is spilled from the cup into thesaucer, it will accumulate on the bottom of the saucer and cup, so thatupon lifting of the cup for drinking, coffee will drip from the bottomof the cup, oftentimes soiling the clothes of the wearer.

Attempts have been made in the past to provide a dripless saucer toovercome this disadvantage, but these have not been commerciallysuccessful or widely adopted because of the rather complicatedconstruction involved and detraction from the appearance of the saucer,also the difiiculty of washing because of crevices etc.

An object of my invention is to provide a dripless saucer of a designclosely simulating that of a conventional saucer, so as not to detractfrom its ordinary appearance.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent from a study of thefollowing description taken with the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a dripless saucer embodying the features of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line II-II of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view similar to FIG. 2 but showing amodification involving an insert rather than an integral part of thesaucer, and;

FIG. 4 is a side view of the insert shown in FIG. 3.

Referring more particularly to FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawing, numeral 1denotes, in dash and dot outline, a cup of conventional construction,such as one made of earthenware, hard plastic or any other suitablematerial and numeral 3 denotes a saucer, therefor, of the same material.Saucer 3 has a peripheral bead portion 2 and has a central bottomportion 4 which is preferably somewhat convex in shape and at anelevation somewhat higher than the surrounding circular well portion 7.An

integral rim portion 5 is provided for defining a well for receiving thebottom of the cup. A plurality of openings or interruptions are providedin the rim portion 5, three being shown, although it should beunderstood that 1, 2, 4 or any other desired number of openings may beused instead. These openings or passageways allow liquid which spillsfrom the bottom of the cup to drain away from the convex portion 4 so asto collect in the annular well portion 7 and thus remain out of liquidcontact with the bottom of the cup. In this way, the bottom of the3,9375% Patented June 5, 1962 cup will be continually drained and keptrelatively dry and will never have an accumulation of liquid thereinwhich might otherwise spill onto the clothes of the wearer.

FIGS. 3 and 4 show a modification of the invention which, in principle,is the same as that shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 except that a separate insert10 is provided, having a lower disc-shaped projection 11 of reduceddiameter which fits into a correspondingly shaped well portion in thebottom of the saucer to form a perfect fit to prevent lateral shift ofthe insert. Insert 10 is provided with a peripheral rim portion 13 whichis interrupted at intervals (or at only one point) to provide openings17 for drainage of liquid which would otherwise accumulate above theconvex portion 12. The convex surface 12 of the insert is at a higherelevation than the lower portion of the annular Well portion 18 so thatliquid which tends to spill from the bottom of the cup will be drainedaway by the central convex portion 12 so as to collect or accumulate inthe annular well portion 18 and thereby prevent dripping of the cup. Ofcourse, the insert and saucer may be made of earthenware or plasticmaterial, or the insert alone may be made of plastic material, and ofsuch shape so as to fit conventional saucers, such as shown in FIG. 3,so that it may be used as an insert for conventional saucers alreadywidely used.

Thus it will be seen that I have provided a novel dripless saucer whichis of a construction very similar to that of a conventional saucer andwhich will effectively drain liquid from the bottom of the cup so thatthe cup will not rest in a well of liquid; furthermore I have providedan insert which may be fitted snugly into existing conventional saucersso as to convert them into dripless saucers and which insert is ofrelatively inexpensive construction.

Vfhile I have illustrated and described several embodiments of myinvention, it will be understood that these are by way of illustrationonly, and that various changes and modifications may be made within thecontemplation of my invention and within the scope of the followingclaim.

I claim:

In combination with a saucer having a shallow central depression ofcircular outline, an insert having a circular portion with asubstantially fiat bottom surface which snugly fits said saucerdepression, said insert having a convex top surface surrounded by anintegral discontinuous, circular rim to form a seat for receiving a cup,the saucer portion immediately surrounding said insert being at a lowerlevel than said convex top surface so that spilled liquid will drainfrom said surface through the discontinuous portion of the rim and intosaid surrounding portion of the saucer where it will accumulate.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS117,766 Gibson Aug. 8, 1871 2,518,368 Peters Aug. 8, 1950 2,755,644Watson July 24, 1956

